Metal Reviews

Spain missed because Portugal pressed hard. they had like 1 blatant chance (Iniesta), 2 or 3 at best. that's nothing by their standards. Negredo was a failed bet, though, yeah.

in OT Portugal was exhausted. we (and everyone else) has to put in twice the effort in defending when it's Spain on the other side.

i'm not so optimistic for Portugal. barely any new faces since 2010, and no youngsters in Benfica or Porto besides that Nélson Oliveira kid, even though Portugal was runner-up in the recent U21 world cup. Ronaldo and Nani should be in their peak condition though, so there's that.

oh yeah, SUPER MARIO BALOTELLI?!?! AND he's displaying Cantona-like levels of not giving a fuck!

So Spain vs Italy in the debt bowl.

Winner gets 3x bailout money?

Fucking hell, Germany were terrible. And we went to penalties with Italy... Balotelli was wonderful, though, have to give him his due.

Yeah, watch Italy shock Spain next.

And many an Englishman will lose sleep over what could have been.

I'll place money on Italy now. Holy hell.

wtf Balotelli!! that second goal was awesome!

EDIT: http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2012/6/2 ... do-history
"Cry Not For Portugal: Euro 2012 Another Success For The Little Country That Could"

partly agree, but you can't deny that Portugal has choked. we choked in 2004, and we fucked up unforgivably in 2002 (in a group with the USA, South Korea and Poland) after totally storming through qualification.

what i agree with is that Portugal definitely punches above its weight. 10M people, and yet the national team does well and the top 3 clubs are arguably the best in Europe outside of the EPL/La Liga/Serie A/Bundesliga, despite the much higher budgets in dutch, french and recently russian and ukranian clubs.

The final will be extremely interesting for the fan of tactics. It'll be interesting to see how the teams line up against each other having battled to a stale mate in the first game.

I suspect both teams will go for the jugular. This is the final. NO sense in holding back. Italy I think will try to mimic what they did in the first game against SPain, clog up the midfield and wait for Pirlo to serve a through ball on the counter attack.

I don't think Spain will play the usual 4-6-0. They no longer need to conserve energy for the next game. This is it. They will probably play at least one winger, either Navas or Pedro and we may see either Torres or Llorente. Given Italy's probable plan of jamming the midfield, Spain will do what they always do, try and go around the defendners. In tihs case, with wingers with pace. Expect a lot more crosses in this game than before.

That's just my take.

Portugal is a great team. Spain and Portugal are proof that the Iberian peninsula is the best footballing region in the world.

Spain will play 2-8-0 because TIKI TAKA!!!111!!!!!+! whatever, Pirlo will find it hard to do his thing with 8 midfielders around him, Balotelli will showboat and forget to play, and Spain will kill football by winning 1-0. God I hate Spain.

Don't talk bollocks. Portugal is a one man team. Spain has some great players, but insist on playing the most stultifying, arrogant, cynical, anti-football shite ever. Want to know what the hardest league to compete in is? The Bundesliga. Which league has the best attackers? Eredivise. Which league has the most physical exertion? EPL/SPL. Portugal got lucky, and Spain play like Chelsea did. Best footballing region my arse.

If you think Spain plays like Chelsea, you've got no idea of football.

Seeing Spain playing is boring, but that's for physichal reasons. They are in a very bad shape psychically (specially Xavi) and they have to rely on technical, in what they are the best.

Seeing Iniesta play is the best thing (with Pirlo) that had happened in a really boring eurocup.

Spain and Chelsea both play by trying to kill the game dead- Chelsea by parking the bus full, and Spain by endless passing and back passing.

Spain play in a boring way because all they have is very gifted midfielders who are good at through balls and so but no one to give them to.

Well, we can agree with that. But I prefer spanish play to Chelsea's one 1000 times... Some of the things Iniesta (and sometimes Silva) does are pure magic.

Really, in my opinion nobody in this eurocup has played good football. Italia yesterday played like Spain, and had the luck of german's really bad defense, very different of the really good portuguese's one.

Tough to argue Spain is killing football. They have made the game more elegant. It's not their fault if the response is brutish and negative. Italy will be different. This game will be more open and we will finally see how beautiful the Spanish game is. Now that there is no reason to hold back, Spain will explode.

That's not to say Italy won't either. I think this game will be a full tilt gallop towards the cup.

Anyone else who criticizes the teams or the tactics is jealous that their team is not as good.

CuCulain, I don't know where you're from, but if you're Scottish, Irish, or English, then you must keep quiet because yours' is an inferior footballing culture that will never stack up to either Spain or Italy.

900 passes in their own area is not "elegant". Goddamm I hate plastic Spain fans. I'm Swiss, living in Scotland. As for "inferior" footballing culture, stick any of these Spanish fannies in the EPL and they'll have their legs broken in the first tackle. The old saying is that "Barcelona couldn't win on a rainy night in Stoke". You know fuck all about football culture, the differences are enormous. You can't just see highly talented players pass the ball around for ever and say it's a "better footballing culture". For fuck's sake.

Holy Terror:
You can be such a fucking ignoramus/hypernationalist: I remember this same garbage from you from the last World Cup. Like you much better when you talk about obscure thrash no one cares about.

But Barcelona doesn't play like Spain. They pass and pass, but only to kill like a snake. Messi, physichal shape (including Villa's injury), and more offensive feeling are the differences bewtween the two. But a club is not a national selection, and a world championship/eurocup is not similar to a league.
As here in Spain some say, spanish selection is the dark side of tikitaka. But serves its purpose: to win.

That wasn't the point of bringing up Barca though, the point was about footballing culture, and the Spanish style would crumble in an English environment. Pitch sizes, weather conditions, tackling brutality, etc- all these factors play a big deal in how well a team does in other countries.

Guys, this is football, not power metal. Leave the hooliganism for elsewhere, k?

The vast "cultural difference" that exists is simply undeniable and as a result a very vividly known fact! It's very bald and unambiguous.